Post-World War II Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.

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At the first part of the movie young student Michael meets Hanna when she decides to take him home when she finds him sick at her doorstep. She takes care of him and after a few days he comes back to thank her. It is then Hanna ask a very important to the interpretation of the movie question: "Are you weak?" - she asks her guest.

This question is important because it leads to nazzi ideology which denies all types of weaknesses. According to nazzis weak people are unworthy.

At the second part of the film - years after the love affair between Michael and Hanna had finished, Michael is attending a trial as a part of his university education. There he is surprised to find that one of the defendants is his first love - Hannah who is on a trial because of her participation of murdering Jews during WWII. It is at this trial where the most important event of the story occurs. Hannah is given a choice:

She is accused of ordering the execution of 300 Jewish women and the prove to that is a note which she supposedly wrote. But as Michael finds out Hannah is unable to read (that's why she had asked him to read to her during their love affair). All she has to do to be freed is to admit that to the jury. But she denies to do so, only because she doesn't want to reveal her weakness.

This way Hannah shows that she still believes in Nazi ideology and could not be forgiven for her actions, even though she did not personally order the execution which she is accused and later sentenced for.